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Families Untied: Public Housing Banning Policy Tears Families Apart
(Cross-posted to Daily Kos and Feministing.)
What if the government told you your family couldn't live together? That your father, or your son, or your boyfriend couldn't even come over to your house to visit? That if he did visit you, he would be arrested, prosecuted for trespassing, possibly incarcerated, and you could be evicted? That's exactly what the city of Annapolis, MD, is telling its public housing residents.
The city's public housing authority maintains a list of people – currently over 500 – who are banned from being on or near public housing property. The housing authority claims that all of these people are a danger to the community, but the fact is many of them have never been convicted or even charged with a crime, while others committed minor offenses years ago and have long since served their time. Still, they can't get off the list. Dalanda Moses is a young woman trying to juggle work, school, and being a new mother. Her boyfriend, James, wanted to be involved throughout her pregnancy and once their daughter, Mariah, was born, but was banned from entering Dalanda's family's home in public housing based on a juvenile drug charge for which he was never prosecuted. Appeals to the housing authority to allow James to be a part of their lives went unanswered, so Dalanda was forced to choose between raising her daughter without a father and moving out of her family's home, just when she needed their help the most. Glenda Smith is raising her four-year-old great-grandson, Rico, and has to explain to him why his mother can't live with them – she was arrested two years ago and is still banned, even though she has been released from the juvenile justice system and completed a rehabilitation program. Glenda asks, Would you want someone coming to your home and telling you what to do, who can come in your house, how to raise your kids? This is their property, but the families, they don't own us. These and other residents of public housing – primarily low-income women of color – are trying to raise families under already difficult conditions, which are made more difficult when the housing authority prevents their partners, children, and grandchildren from being involved in their family lives. The "tough-on-crime" policies that are ostensibly designed to improve life for the residents are having the opposite effect by criminalizing family life and tearing families apart. Learn more about the Annapolis public housing ban and the ACLU case challenging it at www.aclu.org/housingban. Watch videos featuring Dalanda, Glenda, and other plaintiffs in the case on YouTube. And learn more about all of the ACLU's work on behalf of women impacted by the criminal justice system at www.aclu.org/crimjustice/women and on the ACLU of Maryland's website. Tags: video
Accountability 101 If you’ve been following our conversation about torture, you know by now that today is International Day in Support of Torture Victims. The ACLU has been calling for accountability for the abuse and torture of detainees in U.S. custody, but what does accountability mean in practice? Jameel Jaffer, the Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project explains in this short video.
We hope you’ll join us and take a stand against torture today.
Torture 101Pop quiz! This Friday, June 26 is: A: International Day in Support of Torture Victims If you answered "D," you are correct!
The Convention Against Torture (CAT) is the most important international human rights treaty that deals exclusively with torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The treaty went into effect on June 26, 1987, and was ratified by the U.S. in 1994. Countries that have signed the treaty are obligated to prohibit and prevent torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in all circumstances. The treaty also compels governments who ratified it to investigate all allegations of torture, to bring to justice the perpetrators, and to provide a remedy to victims of torture. In this new video, Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, explains more about international legal standards — including CAT — that criminalize acts of torture, as well as the United States' obligations to seek accountability for torture.
Given the significance of this date, June 26 has also been named as International Day in Support of Torture Victims, a day to demonstrate solidarity with victims of torture. Although the U.S. once led the fight against torture around the world, this June 26 we face a different challenge — one that requires this country to face the facts and come to terms with the reality of this country's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody that took place over the last eight years. We hope you'll join us by taking action on June 26 (stay tuned for details), because if we don't demand accountability for the crimes that were in committed in our name, who will?
Happy Flag Day!In honor of National Flag Day this Sunday, I took a few minutes to interview Gilbert Baker, the creator of a flag that is very important to the LGBT community — the rainbow pride flag. Hoping to create a hopeful symbol to celebrate the diversity and pride of the gay community, Mr. Baker designed the flag in 1978, hand dyeing and sewing the original flag in his San Francisco home. In the wake of Harvey Milk’s assassination, the San Francisco pride parade committee decided to use the rainbow flag to decorate the parade route, launching its recognition as a universal symbol for pride. The video below includes selected clips from our interview.
Don't just sit back and have a cocktail... Get Busy, Get Equal! Become our fan on Facebook and get the latest LGBT news and updates on ways to get involved in your state. Tags: video
Got Milk? Why, Yes, We Have Harvey MilkYesterday morning, a sixth grader in California gave a report in one of her classes. That might not sound like terribly exciting news, except that the report was about Harvey Milk, and the student only got to give her report after the ACLU threatened her school with a lawsuit for censoring it. Natalie Jones, a sixth grader at Mt. Woodson Elementary School in Ramona, California, had been given a class assignment to write a report on any subject she wanted. Natalie got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on her report about the gay civil rights icon. Students were then told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they would show to other students in the class. Natalie put together a 12-page presentation on Milk that you can view here. But the day before Natalie was to give her presentation she was called into the principal's office and told she couldn't do so. Then the school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that Natalie's presentation was being rescheduled for a lunch recess and that students could only attend if they had parental permission due to the allegedly “sensitive” nature of the topic. School officials tried to justify all of this by claiming Natalie's presentation triggered the school's sex education policy.
Natalie's mom Bonnie tells us it went really well. She's terribly proud of Natalie, and we are too. But I suspect Harvey, if he were around today, might be proudest of all. CORRECTION: The title has been amended to better clarify the subject of the this blog post. Tags: video
Battleground New YorkThey lost in Vermont. They lost in Maine. They even lost in Iowa. And now the anti-marriage zealots are coming into New York’s backyard. Last week the National Organization for Marriage made it clear that the Empire State is the new battleground in their war against equality. But we will meet them with love. We will meet them with families. We will meet them with commitment. We will meet them with a belief in fairness, equality, justice and the values that this national was founded on. Watch this video and meet the real people and loving relationships behind the fight for marriage fairness in New York State:
Visit MarriageNY.com to stand up for fairness, to stand up for justice and to stand up for love. Tell your representatives that New Yorkers value all families. Tags: video
Justice (Indefinitely) DelayedOn January 12, the ACLU filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Jawad, who was a teenager when he was taken into U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The case seeks to challenge the basis for Jawad’s illegal detention and prosecution in the unconstitutional military commissions system in a federal court. Even Jawad’s former military prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld supports our case. He left the military commissions because he did not believe he could ethically prosecute Jawad’s case because there is "no credible evidence or legal basis" to justify Jawad's detention and prosecution. Just two days after the Bush Justice Department received our petition, DOJ attorneys filed a motion to dismiss or delay our case on the grounds that the federal court should wait for Jawad's military commission case to end. But of course, the landscape changed after President Obama took office and issued an executive order instructing Defense Secretary Gates to seek a halt to all military commission cases, including Jawad's. The President’s Order is a good first step to end the ignominious commissions, but it cannot be used — as the government now is using it in Jawad’s case — to delay habeas relief. We also believe that the flawed and unconstitutional military commissions system should never be revived. So today we filed our brief opposing the government's motion to dismiss. Check out a new video about the case featuring ACLU National Security Project staff attorney Hina Shamsi:
Mohammed Jawad has now spent six years — nearly a third of his life — at Guantánamo, and has been subjected to torture and cruelty there. Six years is a lifetime for anyone, not just a teenager; in this case, justice delayed is truly justice denied. Tags: Mohammed Jawad, video
A Gay Rights Life
Matt and the staff at the ACLU's LGBT Project recently joined with a coalition to launch the "Tell 3" campaign, which encourages gays and lesbians to tell three people they're close to about what it's like to be gay. Straight people are also talking about their gay loved ones. The idea is that when enough people know and understand someone who is gay, they'll stop casting votes that discriminate against gay people. We hope Matt's episode of "ACLU Conversations" will help prompt the kind of personal conversations that will get us there. Look for more conversations on a variety of issues in this new video series from the American Civil Liberties Union. Tags: Conversations, video
Tell Three: Because Coming Out Is Not EnoughFor those of us who work for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, it’s been clear for years now that we are slowly but surely getting closer and closer to attaining equality. Thanks to the Lawrence v. Texas decision five years ago, our intimate relationships can no longer be outlawed. Many state and local governments ban discrimination against LGBT people, hundreds of major corporations offer domestic partner protections to their LGBT employees, and many other advances have been made. But it’s just as clear that we still have a long road ahead of us. In the last election, California voted to get rid of marriage rights for our community; 29 other states have done the same. LGBT people still get fired from their jobs just for being who they are, young people still get beat up in school for seeming "queer" while school administrators do nothing about it, and in some states, same-sex couples can't foster or adopt while children in need go without homes. LGBT visibility has brought a lot of progress, but being out and visible just isn’t enough. What we’ve learned from social science research is that the thing that most changes people's hearts and minds and gets them to support equality is having had meaningful, detailed conversations with LGBT people about what our lives are really like. That’s what Tell 3 is all about. Tell 3 is a campaign we just launched in partnership with Join the Impact; Equality California; the Equality Federation; Freedom to Marry; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; the National Center for Lesbian Rights; and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to encourage LGBT people and their supporters to have three conversations with friends and family to help build support for LGBT equality.
So check out the Tell 3 website, where we have suggestions about what to talk about, ideas about who you can talk with, resources and more. Who are you going to tell? Tags: video
Show Me the Memos!Today, we sent a letter to the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) asking them to release still-secret memos that provided the legal basis for many of the Bush administration's controversial national security policies. The OLC — a component of the Justice Department — was created to provide objective legal advice to the Attorney General and to resolve legal disputes among federal agencies. But under the Bush administration, the OLC became a facilitator for illegal government conduct including unlawful interrogation and detention practices, rendition and warrantless wiretapping. Although some of these memos (PDF) are public — both through leaks to the press and the ongoing torture and surveillance FOIA litigation by the ACLU and other organizations — a majority of them still remain secret. As McClatchy Newspapers points out, "The collections of memos…are viewed as the missing puzzle pieces that could help explain the Bush administration's antiterrorism policies." Our National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer explains why the release of these memos is so crucial in a new ACLU video.
You can learn more about the memos and the men behind the memos, over at ProPublica — they have posted an interactive list of these crucial records — missing and known. ProPublica's web feature is based in part on information obtained and compiled by the ACLU. As President Obama has made clear in his January 21, 2009 Executive Order about FOIA, "democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency." We think the American public has a right to see the memos that supplied the basis for the Bush administration's illegal national security policies We're hoping that the new leadership of the OLC agrees. Tags: national security project, video
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Matt Coles, director of the ACLU LGBT Project, talks to Joel Engardio about his life working in gay rights, coming out, surviving the AIDS crisis and fighting for LGBT equality. Matt's conversation is divided into three chapters, each four minutes long:
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